Re-engineering knock-out processes

The core of many workflow processes in banks, insurance companies, governmental departments, and administrations of multinationals is formed by a set of tasks that are used to classify cases into two groups: accepted and rejected. Each of these tasks has two possible outcomes: OK or NOK (i.e., Not OK). If for a specific case all tasks result in OK, the case is accepted, otherwise it is rejected. In this paper, we concentrate on the order in which these tasks need to be executed to yield an 'optimal' process with respect to the utilization of resources and flow time. Both sequential and parallel routing are considered. The effect of combining tasks is also investigated. A step-wise approach consisting of 11 concrete re-engineering rules is given. The approach is supported by a simulation toolbox ExSpect/KO. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.